CSPC: Aerosmith Popularity Analysis
Original Album Sales – Comments
1973 Aerosmith – 3,540,000
1974 Get Your Wings – 3,880,000
1975 Toys in the Attic – 10,180,000
1976 Rocks – 5,350,000
1977 Draw the Line – 2,740,000
1979 Night in the Ruts – 1,510,000
1982 Rock in a Hard Place – 1,050,000
1985 Done with Mirrors – 930,000
1987 Permanent Vacation – 7,590,000
1989 Pump – 10,520,000
1993 Get a Grip – 13,360,000
1997 Nine Lives – 6,110,000
2001 Just Push Play – 3,120,000
2004 Honkin’ on Hobo – 1,310,000
2012 Music from Another Dimension! – 520,000
Pure studio album sales of 71,7 million units are no doubt impressive. The fact that Aerosmith achieved 3 10-million selling albums across 18 years is also noteworthy. Ultimately, their top seller in pure units is Get a Grip, from 1993. This album sold over 3 million units in Europe and over half a million units in both Latin America and Japan. A real global seller.
Interestingly, the band sold 28,25 million with albums from their first decade and 37,58 million with their 1987-1997 outputs. It doesn’t mean that the latter era was the biggest though as early material was recycled multiple times through compilations. What’s clear though is that Aerosmith had two lives.
They were different lives still. Up to 1985, their albums shifted 81% of their copies in the US alone. In most, a large part of sales abroad came as catalog sales during the 90s. As for albums issued since 1987, they sold a much more balanced 59% in the US and 41% abroad. The band fully enjoyed the mundialization enabled by the likes Michael Jackson and Madonna during the 80s.
Hi MJD, in Asia Aerosmith outside Japan sell this way less than Metallica?
Hi Jsak!
I haven’t all numbers at hand but from my memories of the Aerosmith study they got big in Asia only with I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing. Even in countries where they have strong views, this song represents a gigantic share of it. Metallica sold very well in Asia from the very beginning so it would be natural to see them ahead.
Aerosmith:
Asia – 9,780,000
Japan – 7,065,000
Metallica:
Asia – 8.380.000
Japan – 3.785.000
Aerosmith in Japan have sold far more, but there is no history outside.
Except this is inaccurate. Aerosmith has more than 150 million world wide in album sales. And if you rank them by platinum album sales Aerosmith is ranked 14th above metallica, Bon jovi, van halen, the who, Michael Jackson. And Aerosmith has still sold more units in America than bon jovi or metallica.
Hi Wayne! What’s inaccurate is all these good old claims coming out of nowhere and repeated online by lazy journalists who just pick the first thing they read on Wikipedia to fill their article. No, Elvis hasn’t sold 1 billion records, nor has the Beatles, Michael Jackson hasn’t sold 750 million, ABBA hasn’t sold 350 million, Madonna hasn’t sold 300 million albums, etc, etc, and Aerosmith haven’t sold more than 150 million albums globally. As for “ranking them by platinum”, that means considering the US is the World as well as considering that albums is the only format that ever… Read more »
Join the discussion…I heard on a 60 minutes episode of Steve Tyler on an interview and they said Aerosmith had sold 160 million albums world wide back in 2013. Obviously 7 years later their even higher now.
You get about 160m if you add all album and single sales together unweighted.
I guess that’s the way it works for all artists. Record sales are way less these days because everything is digital streaming what you have to have 1500 streams gisty just the equal one album sale.